So often, our lives as Christians can become filled with the law. We ought to read our Bibles more, we ought to be more intentional with discipling our children, we ought to be better Proverbs 31 women, we ought to evangelize more, we ought to give more, teach more, pray more, lead more, serve more, more, more, more. But the law made nothing perfect.
Even I can get bogged down by what more I think I ought to be doing. My self talk and thoughts can become so negative and I begin to lose sight of God's grace and sometimes even the truth of the gifts and talents He has given me. We get Justification and Sanctification a little mixed up.
One pastor once coined it as "Janctification." A cross-over happens and somehow we begin to "ought to" our way into being a 'good Christian' and good standings before God. The fact of the matter though, is that
Only Jesus saves, not our lists of "ought to's" or our good deeds. "The law says, >>do this<<, and it is never done. Grace says, >>believe in this<<, and everything is already done."
Jesus saves, and there is NOTHING we can do to make ourselves 'look good' before God because even our good works are like filthy rags because we are sinful human beings. Being justified is a done deal, nothing to work up to; we cannot become more justified.
Sanctification though, now that is something the Holy Spirit is working out in us day by day, a process that will never be completed until our days here on Earth are through. We are all slowly and sometimes painfully being shaped and molded to be more like Christ, but we must never lose sight of the FACT that as a sinner saved by grace, our position in Christ does not change based on our performance.
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